Phils' Streak Halted At 5 By Cards 4-3

June 28, 1985|by TED MEIXELL, The Morning Call PHILADELPHIA

out of six sure as shootin' ain't nothin' to sneeze at.

Although the Phils had a couple golden opportunities yesterday to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals and complete a sweep of their six-game home stand, Willie McGee - with a little help from his friends, a fan and Mike Schmidt - sparked the Cards to a 4-3 getaway day victory.

McGee simply had a field day at the expense of Phillie hurlers Shane Rawley and Larry Andersen, going 3-for-3 (including a triple) with a walk and scoring three times. In the process, he hiked his batting average to .355 and vaulted ahead of teammate Tom Herr and into the lead in the National League batting race.

McGee?

Well, in the first inning, he hammered a Rawley slant well over Garry Maddox's head in center and scored on Herr's groundout. In the fourth, he singled, went to second on a wild pitch and scored when Phil shortstop Derrel Thomas waved Ole to a Herr grounder that rolled to the wall and became a three-base error. And in the sixth, he drew a walk, made it to second as Herr groundedout and scored when Jack Clark shot a two-base tracer to the base of the wall in right-center.

McGee did lose one battle, however, in the eighth, although, as it turned out, he couldn't have cared less.

After singling and moving to second when second base umpire Bob Engel ruled that Juan Samuel failed to touch the bag on Herr's double play grounder, Andersen picked him off, on about his sixth try.

"I've had hot spells before," McGee gee-whizzed later. "I feel I've hit the ball better at times than I am now. And I feel a lot of our guys are hitting the ball well right now, not just me. Let's just say it was another good day."

After stroking home runs two out of the past three days, yesterday was not a good day for Michael Jack Schmidt. In the first inning, after one-out singles by Rick Schu and Greg Gross put runners at the corners, Schmitty popped to short center. When Glenn Wilson popped to first, Card starter and winner Kurt Kepshire (5-5) had dodged a bullet.

In the eighth, after solo homers by Ozzie Virgil and pinch hitter Von Hayes had brought the Phils to within 4-2, St. Louis reliever Bill Campbell walked Gross and yielded a sharp single to Schmidt. Wilson followed by slamming a double to left-center that scored Gross easily with run No. 3. But the ball bounded cleanly off the wall to McGee, who rifled a relay strike to shortstop Ozzie Smith.

Third base coach Dave Bristol posted a two-hand stop sign above his head seemingly well before Schmidt hit third. But Schmidt wheeled right through it and was a dead duck at the plate by 15 feet.

"It was bad baserunning," manager John Felske said, "especially with none out. His (Schmidt's) job is to pick up the base coach, the play's behind him. The coach watches the relay throw. If it's a bad one, he sends him, if it's not, he holds him."

Schmidt's version of what happened differed markedly from that of Bristol.

Noting that at one point he saw Bristol wave him on, Schmidt said, "Once I saw that, I put my head down and made up my mind I was going all the way. If I'd have had my head up as I rounded third, I probably would've been able to stop. But I had my head down."

Asked if he'd held Schmidt, Bristol bristled, "All the way! Weren't you at the game? Didn't you see it? I just watch the ball. When I see it's going to the cutoff man, I stop my man, whether it's Mike Schmidt or any other guy. In the 35 years I've been in the game, when you put your hands up it means stop!"

At any rate, Jeff Lahti came on to rescue Campbell, striking out Virgil and getting Maddox on a grounder to O. Smith.

In the early going, Kepshire settled down following his first-inning brush with disaster, retiring 11 Phils in a row. But the suddenly sweet-swinging Virgil interrupted his Cy Young imitation in the fifth, slamming a leadoff three-iron into the Cards' bullpen on a 1-1 pitch to halve the deficit.

Kepshire resumed his excellence for the next five batters, but, with two out in the sixth, he pitched himself into another jam by walking Gross, Schmidt and Glenn Wilson to load the bases. It also set up another confrontation with Virgil, but with the help of a juvenile (albeit middle- aged) fan in the front row, Kepshire won the rematch.

With the count at 1-2, Virgil lofted a high pop foul behind home plate, immediately adjacent to the Phils' dugout. Card catcher Tom Nieto gave chase. He may or may not have been able to catch the ball. But, just as he reached out with his glove hand, the fan reached too. He muffed the chance but knocked it away from Nieto.

In the judgement of plate ump Paul Runge, Nieto had a legitimateshot at the ball, so he immediately signalled Virgil out because of fan interference.

Perhaps unnerved, Rawley (5-6) went out in the seventh and served up a leadoff homer to the feared O. Smith that stretched the Cards' lead to 4-1.